Tag Archives: Chennai

Its been really long time, since i blogged. So many things have changed since then. But some problems and their puzzling nature remains the same. Got calls from CUMI regarding medical check ups to be taken. Started watching Two and Half men, its really hilarious and cool. As the general elections are around, the canvassing is crazy over here in India and its gonna be a historic one in country’s after independence, as the obsolete and sickular congress is about to be overthrown. The revolutionary and a leader with impeccable record for good governance is going to bring back India in track of growth and development again.

I think this what people call a Miracle. The sequence of events which took place still makes me wonder how it happened. So let me rephrase them.

I am a final year Mechanical engineering student, of Anna University, Chennai. Like many of my fellow colleagues, I neither had a excellent GPA or desire to pursue higher studies immediately after under graduation and on the other hand I was really looking to work in an industry and apply the engineering skills I acquired and which will also support my family’s unsteady income.

Unlike other colleges of Tamil Nadu, Anna University is the best in engineering, so we were assured of lot of companies visiting our campus and recruiting far more students than from other colleges. But still the numbers weren’t as great as last year because of recession.

Even of the IT giants such as Infosys, IBM, TCS, Wipro, CTS, Accenture, only Infosys and Accenture came around this year. Sad part is they came at the beginning of the placement season when people were high on confidence and believed that they could land on a core job. So many didn’t take them seriously, and some wise farsighted serious people got placed in them. .

But then as expected the core companies slowly started to come in good numbers, While very few companies took 3 or 4 students, most of the companies stuck with 2. The strength is approximately 250, (Actually it should have been 150 at max, but because of few corrupt officials, over 100 additional students came in, by greasing various palms, typical Indian system 😦 ) ofcourse the eligible and willing people were around say 180 students.

Just imagine, the 2 people per company, it would take life long to get all students placed and never so many companies have visited our campus too.

So the desperate students prepared hard and gave their best shot at each company, but most companies looked at just GPA and either they didn’t even bother to ask technical questions or the questions were away from area of interest. 9 pointers and the 8 pointers were getting placed quickly and 7 pointers faced the heat, and I was among them.

There were few companies which did a fair job by giving equal opportunities I would say, or purposely selected 7 pointers, to be precise, 2 companies L&T and Carborundum Universal Ltd, each selected one seven pointer. And luckily I was one among them.

Carborundum Universal Ltd. is the one which trusted this first graduate 7 pointer. Will give my best to them. When the results were announced, I just couldn’t believe it, After receiving offer letter, called my mom and said her, and went to Lord Ganesha temple, which was at the other end of the campus, and drove back to home.

I believe God always helps us, the only thing he asks is to follow his principles and to love all, If one follows him, he will definitely look after us, though the going may seem difficult. I saw it in my own eyes, after getting rejected by more than 20 companies, I was terribly depressed and feeling low, and the Carborundum came like a breeze and relieved me.

I wish my other friends who are trying hard to get placed soon, I know eventually they will, But I hope they get placed soon, so that they can enjoy the final days of college, without any pressure.

Once upon a time in India, when every student who completed High school final examinations successfully with high marks opted for medicine and the others chose arts and literature. . . And SOME, SOME really interested or LUCKY ones got into engineering. . Then came the demand. . Which was huge as there were meager number of students, and the progress in manufacturing started to improve at good pace. .

And then came the ILLUSION or misconception that students who studied engineering got high pays and got settled in no time. .bla bla. .Which takes us to next stage, Many students joined engineering, not as many but somewhat higher than the usual. .And as the industrial growth and economy was also developing all along, was capable of absorbing the few more excess students. .

Thus our people, the Indian parents formed a strong opinion or believed that studying ENGINEERING = settled life, hefty salary package, and most importantly it takes just 4 years to study, unlike medicine where you have to study atleast 10 good years to earn as much as an engineer would do. .

So the craze was on and the rich goons and mafias understood the situation and started x, y, z engineering colleges, and pocketed the hard earned money of middle class parents who sent their sons to those colleges to study. That was the first step of quality degradation. In span of just few years, there were 500 colleges in just MY STATE, Only god knows how many are in whole India.

Quality of Engineering was eroding exponentially, and thus leaving many new fresh engineering graduates clueless, and most importantly JOBLESS. Thats when IT Information Technology kicked in, it absorbed engineers from all disciplines, like chemical, agricultural, mechanical, electrical, electronics, civil etc. . and trained them in some software and employed them.. As most of the clients were MNCs located abroad, the pay package was decent too. .

But the crucial or more threatening problem is the engineering discipline which one majored went USELESS. . But no body seemed to care all the parents and students want was a decent job, Engineering degree, and settled life. . .

The even worst thing was, this became a TREND. . Many of my school friends who were sharp, and intelligent are delighted and sharing statuses on facebook that they got placed in some IT concern. . I was happy that they got a job, But at the same time, I was deeply worried that, these guys deserve much more, and they could have achieved more. .

But sadly life is not all what we want or what we wish isn’t it. .

Coming to my story. .

Me, Nearly going to complete Mechanical engineering, in the so called most privileged college in my state or one among the best in country, the The great CEG, Anna University.

Being @ last semester, looking back at the 4 year course, It taught me much more than just Engineering. The IT giants came in and recruited bulk number of students in our campus too. .

As I said earlier some bright minds of my class and college, got slipped into it too. . . The core companies visiting the campus are few in number and the number of students they recruit are even few. . . Wishing to get placed soon. .. .

Our design and fabrication Project, is about to come to an END. . Though initially there were few hiccups proceeding with this project, on seeing the big picture, I am satisfied to some extent. We learned and experienced few new things, met new people and got new contacts, got to know about various places in coll, which we earlier thought never existed. .

Had been the DC compressor arrived in time, it would have been AWESOME, the additional costs coz of getting an inverter and battery would have been saved. . roughly 8000 bucks. .

Day after tomorrow is the final review and viva, and tomorrow is the last day for getting the thesis signed by our guide and the head of the department.

We: myself, Abish, Naveen, Benz, have stood up for each other all time and though I cant say everybody has worked equal hours 😉 The support each one provided for one another was tremendous, and whenever one or 2 of us had work, the other 2 would chip in and do the work. . in crucial times. . Thats how a great TEAM would work. ..

We are more like Avengers, a team of superstars. .Each having a unique potential and power,. .Very happy to be part of such a cool team. .

Past few days ago, read about a wonderful discussion on Indian cricket, I would like to share my opinion on it. .I was so moved by the post and as it was in Tamil, my regional language, not many would have taken a look at it. So let me explain what I read in the article and my own view about it. .

Lets see its history first, Cricket a lazy game introduced by British in India. Basically a game which made hardworking Indians lazy. . Typical about it ? It is played by countries which were under British rule during early days. A game which neither has aggressiveness nor spirit, yet called a team sport.

Countries which were under control of Portuguese, Spain, France such as Argentina Brazil, Mexico, bred football and all are now world famous for it. . Even in the Indian states which were under control of Portuguese such as Kerala, Goa foot ball is quite popular.

I am not a foot ball fan or against Cricket here, all I want to say cricket is so lazy and so time consuming to play and watch, so addictive because of lot of figures and stats, anyone would speak about it and think about it even long after the game. .

Funny thing about cricket is apart from England and Australia none of the countries playing it are developed countries, all are underdeveloped or developing countries, and what makes it even more funnier is when some team wins world cup or a number one ranking .. They would be praised that World Number 1. . Whats the point in calling a team world number 1 when there are only 7 countries competing. ?!!

There are so many tiny countries winning so many medals in Olympics, they don’t seem to give a sh*t about cricket ! ! And we India World Number One ODI team (ROFL :D) with a population of 1.2 billion . . couldn’t even win a single gold last year, and yet the whole country wont give a fu*k and tune to their star cricket to see some fixed cricket match. . .

When games like Water polo are in olympics, no one gives a sh*t about cricket, because its neither a team sport nor an aggressive and competitive one, this isn’t enough ? So start thinking people. .

The attitude of people have to change big time and they have to seriously change their perspective about cricket and SPORT . There are several talented and capable individuals in variety of sports but because of lack of fund and support they end up in some other career giving up their passion and dream. .

All I want is stop people stop being mad about lazy cricket and start playing and supporting some real aggressive sport, for example say Kho-kho, kabadi etc., like our great ancestors did, which kept them fit and energetic. . And for God sake respect and support other sports (any sport) which are far more aggressive and fair than cricket.

I didn’t mean to hurt any cricket fans or players, If I had, I am sorry. .

What was the one experience that completely changed your life? What happened? How did it change your life?

I was a dumb-ass way back then. . I still clearly really how dumb and numb I was, I don’t know why, even now I get to feel the same way some times, well that’s different story. . Way back during my third and fourth grades I wound just hopelessly come to school without no intention of studying and I even failed at maths few times miserably. . Things got going the same way till some 7th grade

My grades during the end of term I and II were C and B. I was no body, just an average student with a boring life. . After which I got the spark or the turning point of my life. . I joined a tuition and things seemed to go the same way until, I got 96% in my science exam because of miscalculation of my teacher, as it was the highest mark in my class and many got my paper and checked it, I don’t know why anybody didn’t notice it and report it to the teacher. I was so confused because of that.

Surprisingly I got an A grade in the III term and for the first time since many years. When I said it to my tuition teacher, he was happy and even made me promise to get better marks next examination. I thought to myself that this is just a flash in the pan and no way next time or anytime such thing could be possible.

Quarterly examination was approaching and I studied with much more focus and enthusiasm I got from no where and to everybody’s surprise I got an A once again. From there on it was full of A’s in my schooling apart from few blemishes in tenth grade because of various other reasons such as losing marks in bulk because of silly mistakes and few unexpected questions.

My way of preparation and the confidence grew and as I was of CBSE board, I focused more on various types of problems from all sources such as internet, old books, FIIT JEE papers, etc. Got a bit distracted because of the first time access to Internet 😉 did and saw some usual stuff that any first timer of internet would.

And eventually got 429/500 scoring 90 and 89 in math and science respectively, could have got even more, anyways past is past. Pursued computer science stream in 11th and slackened a bit and got my best preparation for 12th board examinations and got admission in mechanical engineering department in CEG, Anna University and now being a final year student,

I believe the experience I had during my 7th grade was my life changing experience and got me where I am now.

After Microprocessors and Micro controllers, this semester I got the wonderful opportunity of getting to learn Mechatronics, the fascinating marvel. The one which unites all disciplines like mechanical engineering, electronics, programming under one roof to make a product.

Though Professor J Prasanna was a gem of a person, many didn’t like his strict and unconventional approach to the subject, such as On time to class (Sadly this has become unconventional now), not allowing late comers and marks for correct answer.

Hmmm..Everyone hates perfectionism that’s what I can infer from my colleagues attitude.

The synergistic integration of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering and intelligent computer control to design and manufacture products and processes.

The numerous number of classes and the efforts he took to make us understand about the real life use of Mechatronics and its implementation and control… Such a great professor we had got in our college, feeling happy that we have got professors like him to maintain the reputation and the quality of our college.

After this semester examination, he is no more for us 😦 😦 . I can assure that he would have planned to teach us much more, sadly because of the hectic placement schedule and bad attitude of students, he stuck to the syllabus.

I will take all efforts to give my best shot on the Tuesday end semester examination, that is the best I can do as of now as a student to honor him. .